Charles Cotin or Abbé Cotin (1604 – December 1681) was a French
abbé
''Abbé'' (from Latin ''abbas'', in turn from Greek , ''abbas'', from Aramaic ''abba'', a title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of ''abh'', "father") is the French word for an abbot. It is the title for lowe ...
,
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
and poet in the Baroque
Précieuses style. He was made a member of the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
on 7 January 1655.
Cotin was born and died in Paris. He was a scholar of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac, an advisor to
Louis XIV, and renowned in his time for his sermons, poetry, and erudition. He frequented the Paris
literary salons, particularly that of the
Hôtel de Rambouillet as a friend of Mlle de Gournay, and his translation of the
Song of Songs is more notable for its flavor of fashionable salons than of sacred poetry.
Cotin would be completely forgotten in our days if it wasn't for his violent squabbles with
Nicolas Boileau and
Molière, who gave him a stinging satiric immortality as the character Trissotin in ''
Les Femmes savantes''.
Works
*''La Jérusalem désolée, ou Méditation sur les leçons de Ténèbres'' (1634)
*''Recueil des énigmes de ce temps'' (1646)
*''Théoclée, ou la Vraye philosophie des principes du monde'' (1646)
*''Nouveau Recueil de divers rondeaux'' (1650)
*''Traité de l'âme immortelle'' (1655)
*''Œuvres meslées, contenant : énigmes, odes, sonnets et épigrammes'' (1659)
*''La pastorale sacrée, ou Paraphrase du Cantique des Cantiques selon la lettre'' (1660)
*''Oraison funèbre pour messire
Abel Servien, ministre d'État et surintendant des finances'' (1659)
*''La Ménagerie : à Son Altesse Royale Mademoiselle'', a satire against
Gilles Ménage, (1660)
*''Réflexions sur la conduite du roi'' (1663)
*''Œuvres galantes en prose et en vers de monsieur Cotin'' (1663)
*''Odes royales sur les mariages des princesses de Nemours'' (1665)
*''La Critique désintéressée sur les satyres du temps'' (1666)
*''Poësies chrestiennes de l'abbé Cotin'' (1668)
External links
Academie Francaise biography*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotin, Charles
1604 births
1681 deaths
Abbés
French philosophers
French poets
17th-century French writers
17th-century French male writers
Members of the Académie Française
French male poets
French male non-fiction writers